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UNSW Sydney has confirmed plans to overturn contentious changes to its academic calendar, but it will take another three years to reverse its 2019 introduction of trimesters, citing the need for a ¡°smooth transition¡±.

Australia¡¯s fifth-biggest university¡¯s ¡°3+¡± timetable, featuring three 10-week terms and a shorter summer session, will be replaced by a ¡°flex-semester¡± calendar of two substantive 12-week semesters and optional six-week summer and winter terms.

UNSW says the changes, which are still subject to consultations, will boost study term duration, extend rest periods and deliver a ¡°depressurised end of year¡±. The new arrangements will align with school holidays and job recruitment patterns, while allowing for additional optional study during holiday periods.

They will also align more cleanly with the university¡¯s six-week ¡°hexamesters¡±, a parallel academic calendar catering to online master¡¯s courses in data science, finance and management.

UNSW¡¯s vice-president for societal impact, equity and engagement, Verity Firth, said consultations with 5,000 students and 1,000 staff had revealed a widespread view that undergraduates needed to ¡°engage more deeply with course material¡± in a time of ¡°new and emerging technologies like AI¡±.

The alignment with the hexamesters would also make it easier to shake up the university¡¯s offerings. ¡°In the long term, we may also be able to offer those six-week blocks in the undergraduate space as well,¡± Firth said, while stressing this was not currently on the cards.

The consultations had revealed undergraduates¡¯ desire for the ¡°deep dive¡±, Firth said. ¡°That isn¡¯t what [postgraduate] lifelong learners want. They want the shorter ¨C still intensive, but more bite-sized ¨C offerings.¡±

UNSW¡¯s 2019 switch to a trimester model was partly about making better use of a suburb-sized institution that lay largely vacant for around five months a year.

The fuller calendar was seen as a way of boosting options for students, allowing them to accelerate their progress by studying all three trimesters or dropping subjects if they needed to spend more time earning money. It could also reduce bottlenecks in the timetable and clashes between classes and exams.

But the trimesters aroused bitter resentment among students. The three-term calendar reduced scope to pursue lucrative summer jobs and threw study terms off-kilter with northern hemisphere rhythms, which proved problematic for international students.

Staff worried about increased workloads and reduced opportunities for sabbaticals. Student activists complained that the ¡°crymesters¡± would mean ¡°more university, less holidays¡± while enriching the institution.

¡°Less time to study a course,¡± opponents . ¡°Less time to understand the material. Less time to relax. Less time to enjoy being young.¡±

Firth said the consultations had revealed a substantial, but by no means universal, preference for semesters. She said the trimester model had ¡°filled the need¡± of a pre-pandemic period when demand was accelerating and ¡°everything was delivered face-to-face¡±.

Things had changed, she said. ¡°The trimester model was¡­very much of its time.¡±

Administrators will spend the rest of this year building the ¡°transition roadmap¡± and the two coming years finalising plans for the 2028 implementation of the ¡°evolved¡± calendar.

¡°Our transition plans will ensure our systems, processes and people are aligned,¡± UNSW¡¯s website says. ¡°We will identify risks, develop mitigation strategies, and establish contingency plans to support critical areas during the transition.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com